Student presidents from all 18 Vancouver secondary schools have signed a declaration calling on the province to rescind the firing of Vancouver school board trustees.

Caitlin Wong, a 17-year-old student at Killarney secondary and member of the Vancouver district student council, said Vancouver students support the elected trustees and want the province to work with them.

“We did not agree with the decision to fire the board and we were appalled actually that the minister of education … dismissed the board on the exact day that they were going to pass a balanced budget,” said Wong, 17. “It was a blatant disregard for democracy.”

Wong said she would either like the board reinstated or a byelection held as soon as possible.

Education Minister of Education Mike Bernier fired the nine elected Vancouver trustees on Monday for failing to pass a balanced budget by June 30. He appointed former Delta school superintendent Dianne Turner to run the Vancouver district for at least a year.

Several senior staff members went on sick leave in recent weeks and there have been allegations of bullying and harassment and that the district was a toxic work environment. WorkSafeBC investigation is investigating the allegations and a report by provincially appointed special adviser Peter Milburn is complete, but has not been made public.

Hazel Pangilian, 15, a student at Gladstone secondary, which was among the schools the district was considering closing until trustees abandoned the process, wondered what the firing says about democracy.

“It was shocking that they chose (to replace the nine elected trustees with one appointed trustee) because that one person will now have to deal with all of the problems. She will have to make all of the decisions,” Pangilian said.

Ronic Parmar, 18, who graduated in June from Gladstone, said the students stand behind the fired trustees and want them reinstated.

“The appointed trustee has the power to make any decisions she wants. There is no opposition, there is nobody to ask questions,” Parmar said. “I know the minister did hold an audit and an investigation, but these findings have not been made public and we don’t know if there was any harassment or bullying going on, or if there was a toxic workplace.”

At least one of the former trustees says the workplace was toxic. Stacy Robertson, an NPA former trustee, said staff were in an untenable position because the Vision and Green trustees questioned the validity of their enrolment projections, challenged the judgment of the staff and refused to pass a balanced budget despite knowing the cuts would go ahead anyway.

“The failure to pass a budget was political games,” Robertson said. “The trustees knew full well — they were sitting there when those parents were cheering — but they knew full well those cuts were going ahead. To me, that’s a dishonest thing they were doing with those parents in the room.”

Ex-trustee Patti Bacchus, who was part of the Vision and Green party majority that voted against the budget, says not passing it was a “protest.”

“We wouldn’t agree to the cuts, but we didn’t have the power to stop them from occurring. I don’t think we ever expressed otherwise,” Bacchus said.

Other examples that Robertson gave of creating a toxic environment include a calls for the school closure process wait for figures from the latest census, which he called an inaccurate tool to project school enrolment.

In the lead up to the staff going on medical leave, Bacchus asked that the VSB enrolment projections be reviewed by the City of Vancouver. The Vision and Green trustees approved that request, which Robertson that was misguided.

“How do you delay a process when you’re in dire financial circumstances on a hope and a prayer that the mayor … is now going to solve the problem of families not affording housing in Vancouver?” Robertson asks. “Really, all you’re doing is setting our staff up for failure. They were used as political pawns to make a point against the minister.”

Bacchus also asked school board staff to revise the closure plan to reflect where students live rather than where they go to school, particularly after the province removed its 95-per-cent capacity target.

Bacchus says those requests were “due diligence” and that she is confident none of the Vision trustees bullied anyone.

“I think when you’re being asked as a trustee to vote to close schools … you have an obligation to ensure that you have reviewed all the data,” Bacchus said. “I think what made it toxic was that (the staff) had two different bosses. … That’s not because of trustees not doing their jobs, that’s because they’re in the crossfire between the government’s special auditor … and (a politically split board.)”

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.